


I can't guard my heart against you

by Persiflage



Series: Mashed Up Tropes Fics [5]
Category: Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Politics, Bernie Wolfe: World's Okay-est Lesbian, Coming Out, F/F, Gun Violence (mentioned), Mash-up, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Serena Campbell: Bisexual Extraordinaire, Trope de Trope, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27130508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: Politician/Bodyguard AU: Serena Campbell, Prime Minister of Britain, gets a new bodyguard and everything changes.
Relationships: Serena Campbell/Bernie Wolfe
Series: Mashed Up Tropes Fics [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960414
Comments: 19
Kudos: 53





	I can't guard my heart against you

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an Anon for the Mashed Up Tropes Meme on Tumblr, for the tropes: 14. Bodyguard AU and 37. Coming Out Fic

As a post-Brexit British Prime Minister, particularly one who’s seeking to bring Britain back into the EU, Serena Campbell is used to the necessity of having a bodyguard: since Jo Cox was murdered by a right-wing extremist shortly before the Brexit referendum that’s done so much damage to Britain, two more MPs have been murdered, also by right-wing extremists spouting hatred, and both party officials and the senior officers of the Metropolitan Police have nightmares about the serving Prime Minister being murdered, too. Serena can’t say she’s without her own nightmares on the subject, but at least she feels safe with Marie McKenna.

And then Marie falls pregnant and Serena discovers she’ll be getting a new bodyguard. Worse, it’s going to be some crusty old ex-Major named Bernie. Bernie! The fact that this Bernie is SAS is of scant comfort to Serena, who feels certain she and the Major are not going to get on at all.

She’s shocked when Commander Hanssen of the Met knocks on her door the next morning just as she’s finishing breakfast with a long-legged, lithe-looking blonde in tow and introduces her as Major Berenice ‘Bernie’ Wolfe, her new bodyguard. 

Luckily, Serena is well practised in the art of keeping her equilibrium, so she shakes hands (absently noting the short fingernails and the calluses from routinely using a gun), then invites the other woman to have a cup of coffee with her.

“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted,” Hanssen says. “I’m sure you’ll get along like a house on fire.”

“Lots of screaming and running around?” Serena asks with a smirk, which mild joke provokes the most astonishing sound from the glorious woman in front of her: the laugh reminds Serena of nothing so much as a goose honk, and it’s quite adorable in someone who had looked so serious and stern a moment before.

“Quite,” says Hanssen with the ghost of a smile before stepping back out of the kitchen where Serena routinely eats her breakfast.

By the time the door’s closed on him, her housekeeper giving her new bodyguard a doubtful look, the Major has herself back under control again. Which Serena finds rather disappointing.

As Hanssen predicted, Serena and Bernie get on very well indeed, but the Major is a frustratingly close-mouthed and closed-off woman; where her personal life is concerned, Bernie Wolfe acts as if she’s being held by insurgents and Serena finds herself thwarted and frustrated in her attempts to get a handle on the other woman. She flirts with the Major, of course, because Serena flirts with everyone, male or female, as automatically as breathing, but this is the first time in an awfully long time that she can remember so desperately wanting someone to flirt back. She doesn’t have any kind of clue as to Bernie’s sexuality, though Serena does wonder if she’s actually an asexual, so disinterested does she appear. Serena herself is an out-and-proud bisexual; she is particularly proud of the fact that she’s the first openly non-heterosexual Prime Minister the country’s ever had, and is proud of the work she’s done for LGBTQA+ people: trans rights really are human rights now, and transphobia, tolerated for too long, is treated as being as much of a crime as any other hate crime.

Serena, with the Major of course, is on a trip to America when everything changes. It’s Serena’s second trip to New York since winning the election and she’s very much looking forward to meeting with President Kamala Harris, who had been obliged to take over when her running mate, Joe Biden, died unexpectedly only months into his first term in office as the 46th POTUS. The fact that the US President had a Black woman for a Vice President was seen as astonishing enough when it happened; the fact that said Black woman then became POTUS was a damn near miracle, as far as Serena’s concerned.

The two women, together with their bodyguards and a Secret Service entourage, are on a walkabout when a right-wing extremist armed with a gun – a rifle, Serena thinks, although she knows nothing much about guns – starts taking pot-shots at them. The Major tackles her to the ground, shielding Serena’s body with her own, her right arm curled around her head. 

“Stay down,” the blonde says, her voice gone low and gruff, which is having an unfortunate effect on Serena. 

“Why Major, if you wanted to get this close to me, you only had to ask,” she says, because flirting under fire is apparently something she does.

“Seriously, Campbell, is this the time?” 

Serena finds herself unexpectedly thrilled by the Major’s use of her last name –normally she just calls Serena ‘Ma’am’ – and she can’t help shifting a little underneath those long, lithe limbs.

“Will you please stay still?” Bernie begs, actually sounding emotional for once. “I don’t want you getting killed, or even injured. It would make my life insupportable.”

Serena stills instantly, surprised by the Major’s open display of emotion; she’s got used to Bernie’s resemblance to a wooden post over the last few months.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That evening, after Serena’s retired to her suite for the night, she asks Bernie to come and see her. Of course, the Major immediately launches into the latest update from the Secret Service, although she’d received that update herself no less than ten minutes ago.

Serena hears her out, then observes, “I wanted to thank you for today.”

“Just doing my job, ma’am.”

Serena sighs internally at the return of the wooden Major. “I also wanted to apologise.”

That earns her raised eyebrows and slightly parted lips, as if the Major’s about to ask for an explanation. “I shouldn’t have flirted with you when you were simply trying to keep me safe. It was – It was my way of coping.”

“I’m aware,” the Major says. “I know everyone thinks I have the emotional intelligence of a block of wood.” This is news to Serena. “But I can recognise coping behaviour when I see it. I also know you don’t mean it when you flirt with me. It’s sheer force of habit.”

“No, it’s not,” Serena says immediately. “And I very much mean it.” Impulsively she reaches out and catches hold of Bernie’s wrist, tugging at it. To her surprise the Major doesn’t move – it feels as if she’s tugging on a steel bar. “Sit down, Major. Please.”

The blonde obeys, a troubled expression on her face. “Ma’am, I –”

Serena cuts her off by pressing her index finger to her lips. “Shush, you,” she says softly. “It’s not just force of habit when I flirt with you, and I very much mean it, despite the fact that I’ve no idea if you’re even interested in sex. I like you a lot. No, I more than like you – I am very much attracted to you, Major Wolfe.”

The blush that overtakes Bernie’s cheeks is astonishing and makes her look even more gorgeous in Serena’s eyes.

“I – uh – I’ve never told anyone this before,” the Major says gruffly, her tone gone shy, “but I prefer women to men. And I ‘more than like you’ too.”

“Good.” Serena can’t help reaching out, cupping the Major’s cheek in the palm of her hand, before she leans in and presses a deep kiss to the soft pink lips that she’s been gazing at, both openly and covertly, for so long.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](https://pers-books.tumblr.com/post/629483227391901696/i-have-to-agree-this-is-fun-14-bodyguard-au-and).


End file.
